The middle classes should be prepared to pay a little more to create a decent society, Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said today.

He conceded that about a third of households would end up paying more tax under his party's proposals to introduce a local income tax.

But he said replacing the council tax would benefit those who needed it most, such as the elderly.

Speaking on the eve of his keynote party conference speech, he told BBC Radio: "What kind of society do we want and are we all in it together? Our answer is that we want a better society, a more opportunistic society, but we can only get that if we are all in it together."

* Liberal Democrats were expected today to back a call to ban smacking children.

The motion, being debated at the Brighton conference, urges the Government to scrap a law dating back to 1860 which allows "reasonable chastisement" giving children the same protection from being hit as adults.